The Pulpit Commentary — Daniel — Section 337

entor into tho province of tho king of tho nncl ',Viner, with rorP,renc" to thi 8 veiae. north, nml shall o.buso thorn, nnd take The meaning O.H1:1igned to th,; wor<L in tho possession." 'fhore must ho.vo been very Authorized is drawn from Itashi, and iR in different mo.nuscript renclings to explain accordo.nce with the us,v,e of Ezekiel these widoly different renderings. The (xxxii. 30). Ar,d ,hall also" carry captice• Mo.esoretio text soo.rcely quite bears out the into Egypt their god,, with their princeo. rendering of the Authorized Version. Yet As we ho.ve said, Ptolemy Euergetes con- it is difficult to mo.ke o.ny other consistent quere~ e.I_l Syria and l'l!esopotamia to beyonrl sense. Corte.inly Euergetes, brother of the the Tigris. From th1e we learn he carrie,L murdered Berenice, advanced into Syria, otr immense booty, and among the articles o.nd overro.n the whole country, captured taken were images of their gods. And not Beleucia, the port of Antioch, then mo.e- only the gods of Syria, but the images of tered Antioch itself, and advanced even the Egyptian gods, which had been carrie<l beyond the Tigris, while Seleucns retired into Syria from Egypt by Ce.mbysee, nearly behind the Taurus Mountains. The state- three centuries before. If this doubtful ments in the LXX. suit better o. later word, na,alceem, ie ta.ken to mean "imao-es " period in history, when Physcon rebelled it ie difficult to see the reference or" the against hie brother Philometor. Epiph!lnes prenominal suffix. Does it mean that tho invaded Egypt, nominally in the interest of gods themselves, and the images of these Philometor, and le.id siege to Alexandria. gods, were taken? That ie to say, does it Thie, however, does not suit with the next mean that gods of the Syrians were taken, verse. and also their images, as if the images and Ver. 8.-And shall also oarry captives the gods were different? From this, not- into Egypt their gods, with their princes, withstandiD.g the general consensus of inter- and with their precious vessels of silver preters, we feel ourselves necessitated to and of gold; and he shall continue more differ, and to make the word mean" princes," years than the king of the north. The although there is no prominence, in the version of the LXX. is again very different few accounts we have of this expedition, to from that of the Massoretic text, "And any captives of such rank as to be called their gods, with them that moulded them, princes. .And with their p-reciou.s 1Jessels of he shall subdue' (1<ana--rpll/,e,), and their silver and of gold. This rendering, although multitudes with the vessels of their desirable retained in the Revised, is scarcely gram- things, the silver and the gold, shall go into matically accme.te, as the noun for" vessels" captivity in Egypt, and the year shall be to is already defined by the prenominal the king of the north." Theodotion, as so suffix. On the other hand, this word cannot frequently is the case, takes a place inter- readily be in apposition, as the article would mediate between the Massoretio and the be needed. Professor Bevan would make version of the LXX. His rendering is, it "in silver and gold." We feel inclined " And their gods, with those that moulded to regard this as a somewhat irregular con- them, all their desirable vessels of struction, as if a 11a1J had dropped out before gold and silver, he shall carry with the 99;', " silver," though most of the versions captivity into Egypt, and he shall prevail regard these nouns as in the genitivo after over the king of the north." Both the "vessels." And he shall continue mo-re year, Greek versions take DQ?.~, (n•sikhayhem) than the king of the norlh. It is a matter as derived from nasak, "to pour out," hence of fact that Euergetes snrvived Seleucus " to mould," "to form a molten image," Callinicus, his sister's stepso:o. a.boot four reading the word noskeem. The Syriao years. Hitzigand Ewald wou1! f;inder," He differs from both the Greek renderings and shall refrain for some years from attacking also from the Me.ssoretic, " And even he the king of the north." This rendering shall terrify them, and their desi.rn.ble has the advantage that it escapes from the vessels of silver and gold and the captives purely unimportant personal statement that he shall carry down to Egypt, and twice Ptolemy should survive Callinicus. That (literally, 'one, two') shall rise ag11,met the the king of the north was e.l101Yed to regui.n king of the north." The Vulge.te differs the greater part of the dominions which hud in meaning from all the preceding, but the been wrested from him, without any co1m- text it ie drawn from does not differ con- ter effort on the part of Ptolemy, is more sonantly from that of the Me.ssoretes, "And important. Keil objects to this thut th\l besides their gods, and their graven images, emphatio position of N1i1) is ago.inst this, precious vessels too of silver and gold, ho and would support the :rcnderiD.g of the shall lead captive into Egypt, ho shall Yulgate, lpse prevalebit adversus 1·egen1 prevail ag",inst tho king of the north." .A.quilo11is. Both versions are so far gram- The word n•sikhayeem is rendered, in tho matically defensible; yet both are a little Revised Version,' molten images '-o. mtnn- strained: both are in accordance with ing given to the word by F\irst, Gcscnins, history.  110 'rim BOOK 01~ DANmL. [en. Xl, 1--15,